MEB NOW ATOP ALL-TIME U.S. DISTANCE RUNNING LIST

With the great Jim Ryun topping the recent Letsrun.com reader’s poll as the Greatest American Distance Runner of All-Time, thought I would add my two cents by reblogging a post from February 2016. As I wrote on Mike Fanelli’s Facebook page this morning, “Love Jim, but as you said in your open, he’s America’s best MIDDLE-distance runner of all-time, different category. Frank Shorter & Meb Keflezighi vie for the all-time best American male DISTANCE runner of all-time with Galen Rupp on their shoulder and still moving. Here’s my brief (written just after the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in L.A. and before Rupp’s silver medal in Rio.)

After his impressive win at Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon in Los Angeles (in his debut at the distance) who knows how far Oregon’s Galen Rupp can take his career in the years to come — or if he will even have a sport left to build a career upon, given all the rot coming out of the IAAF Eyes Wide Shut hall of mirrors in Monaco these days. But let’s say the sport survives its current suicide attempt, just for argument’s sake.

Though the Oregon-based 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medalist and American record holder is well on his way to a historic CV, and is now talking a probable 10K-marathon double in the Rio Games this August, Galen still has a way to go to match the career resume of his Trial’s runner up Meb Keflezighi. With Meb’s second-place…